This is the Star Trek true fans have been missing, but barely dared hope for: a return to the original characters, in all their giddy glory and with all their hilarious hubris.

Director J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III, TV's Lost and Alias) delivers a solid reboot to series creator Gene Roddenberry's 1960s ideas about life in "space: the final frontier."

After more than 15 years of Next Generation noodling and other tangential diversions, whereupon both fond memories and the movie franchise withered, it's as much a relief as it is a joy to watch.

This is either Star Trek movie No.11 or 1, depending on whether you count it as the 11th in the series or the first in a new prequel franchise. Either way, it easily overcomes the curse that odd-numbered Star Trek movies are generally the worst (with the exception of Nemesis, a.k.a. Star Trek 10, so bad it sent the franchise into a wormhole).

This is one of the best, ranking right up there with such character-driven triumphs as The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home. The special effects are seamless.

The casting is all aces. The emphasis was wisely placed on talent (including good comic timing) rather than on marquee recognition or resemblance to the original cast – although in some cases, the likeness is uncanny.

As James T. Kirk, Chris Pine is more like a young Marlon Brando than a nascent William Shatner, but he has that pugnacious charm down pat. Quick to throw both punches and verbal put-downs, he spends most of the movie with a bruised face.

Mr. Spock is beautifully reconfigured both in Zachary Quinto's serious and sexy incarnation and in Leonard Nimoy's wise and witty original sage – yes, in this brave new cosmos, both the younger and older Spocks can exist in the same universe. And check out Winona Ryder playing Spock's mom, even though, at 37, she's just six years older than Quinto. It's her best role in ages.

Karl Urban is almost too good as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the acerbic sawbones who moans incessantly while saving lives. The portrayal is so reminiscent of the late DeForest Kelley, it almost feels like parody, but it's great fun.

Simon Pegg's engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, doesn't show up until 90 minutes into the two-hour film, and that could be a good thing, because he proceeds to steal every scene he's in.

The rest of the main crew – Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) – are also grand, and all get their spotlight moments.

As Nero, the outlaw Romulan out for revenge on an intergalactic scale, Eric Bana looks like he's channelling Mike Tyson, with his tattooed visage and caveman demeanour. We may long for a more refined baddie along the lines of Wrath of Khan's Ricardo Montalban, but Bana has the gravitas of a classic Star Trek villain.

As for the story, well, it's more Kirk than Spock, by which I mean it's more emotional than logical. But that's entirely in keeping with a TV series that was frequently more circus sideshow than science project.

The script, by Transformers scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, is larded with constant time travel (I lost track of the dates), planet-sucking black holes (caused by a scarlet goo risibly called "red matter"), weird grudges that seem to last millennia and other astro inanity.

But incredibly, that's okay, because the energy and good vibes warp you past the cosmic debris. The writers eschew most of the dull, peacenik palaver that has weighed down the series – you get to hear a Red Shirt proclaim how he's ready to "kick some Romulan ass."

The film's main thrust is to get Kirk from the point where he's a drunken rebel without a clue in one-horse Iowa, stealing cars and acting like the juvenile delinquent he is, to the point where he's ready to take flight and assume the command of the Starship Enterprise.

The Enterprise already has a boss, Capt. Christopher Pike (the reliable Bruce Greenwood), who sees in Kirk a promise that no one else can. Pike knew Kirk's dad, whose heroic actions in the movie's thrilling prologue set up the first of strong parental subplots that motivate both Kirk and Spock.

How Kirk gets to rule the Enterprise consumes so much of the movie, and involves so many convoluted plot twists, it's almost the screenwriting equivalent of mixing matter and antimatter. It should all explode, or at least fuse your dilithium crystal.

But dammit, Jim, it's all done with such verve, and such good humour, that you don't mind sending common sense into deep space.

The friendship between Kirk and Spock begins as an intense rivalry, with the cocky Earthling and the ice-cool Vulcan hating each other, first as schoolboy rivals in the Starfleet Academy and later butting heads aboard the Enterprise.

Abrams respects the past, but he's no slave to it. Kirk and Spock are both hot-blooded in the film, getting bedroom action only hinted at in the past – especially for Spock, whose romantic entanglement will cause a sharp intake of breath for any Trekkies who haven't already Googled all the spoilers.

Major developments to well-known planets are also in store, although as we all know in this series, what goes down can often go right back up. And Scotty now has a weird alien pet that is cute and thankfully more seen than heard. Let's hope Abrams resists any temptation to make an annoyance like Jar Jar Binks in future installments.

There's a running gag about Uhura's missing first name that older fans will appreciate. But both young and old viewers will smile at how one character averts a transporter-tube tragedy using reaction skills he obviously gained while playing video games.

By boldly going back to where it all began, J.J. Abrams has taken Star Trek exactly where it belongs.

Watch the Star Trek trailer at thestar.com/movies

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